Trying to Budget

I've kicked off the month of August by trying very hard to stick to my proposed budget. I still have to tweak my budget a little bit, but I think it's pretty much done. I'm going to try to keep envelopes with cash for fun and food. Therefore, when I'm out of money, I'm out of money. I want to keep separate ING accounts for my travel, clothing, presents (early Christmas savings plan), and emergency fund.

My current emergency fund is knocked down to around $10 because I used it to pay off my credit card debt. I feel so defeated and angry with myself that I let me spending get so out of control. I should have gone into overdrive as soon as my roommate bailed and left me without her share of the bills. Oh well, you live...you learn....

Air Conditioning

I broke down last night and turned on my air conditioning. It was the first time this summer (it's because my new apartment gets a lot more sunlight). I feel disappointed with myself, but I'm sure I'll be a lot more heartbroken when I see my electric bill.

Harry Potter & Lazy Weekend

I had a great weekend! I sat around reading (finished Harry Potter and started a few other books), watching TV, and just hanging out. While I really needed the alone time, I was shocked to find out that I didn't do any shopping, other than grocery shopping.

I rented a few DVDs from the library (free). I went for a run (free) and went swimming in the pool at my apartment complex (free). I did drive to visit a few family members, but my gas tank was full.

The only money I spent was at the grocery store. I went to Trader Joe's and let myself buy whatever I wanted! While I ended up with a lot of random items that I don't know how to assemble a meal from, I did have a great time! Trader Joe's has a lot of great items at an inexpensive price (no, this isn't a sponsored post). They have so many unique items that I wouldn't be able to find anywhere else.

Lazy weekend!

I'm gearing up for a lazy weekend, and I can't wait! It's going to be fabulous! I have no plans, except to get a few runs in...and maybe unpack a few boxes. I'm looking forward to watching a few DVDs and catching up on sleep.

Normally when I have lazy weekends, I get bored and go shopping. If I do shop, I will only allow myself to purchase a dress (for a wedding in August). Right now, I don't plan on even stepping into a mall.

Furniture

While I realize the furniture situation is more of a want, I would still like a few more pieces. Thank you to all of my readers for leaving helpful comments. To answer Dimple's question, I have a dining room table, but no chairs. I have to eat my meals sitting on my couch because I have no chairs in my living room. Between my siblings and me, I think we've cleaned out the family furniture storage. There are two extra futons, but I don't have room in my current apartment for one.

Money Man, I will avoid buying furniture online. The shipping prices are usually outrageous!

If I don't have any luck finding something in the next few weeks, I will venture to IKEA and use a combination of my clothing budget and fun money to purchase at least two chairs to go with my dining room table.

New Apartment=New Furniture

My new apartment requires a few new pieces of furniture--a table, chairs, and a comfy chair for the living room. However, I don't have it in my budget to buy new items. I'm starting to look for deals on craigslist, and I might start cruising garage sales. Does anyone have any other ways to get cheap furniture? I'm not expecting anything super nice, but I would like something functional.

Credit Card Debt GONE!

With a little help from my emergency fund (okay, it was all from my emergency fund), I have wiped the credit card debt out of my life. However, I have about $3 in my emergency fund now, but I will start the slow process of building it back up. I will really try to stick to my proposed budget, which doesn't do a great job of saving money but it I hope it will keep me from overspending.

In order to keep money for bills separate from spending money, I'm moving my spending money to my Chase checking account and keeping my money for bills in my Charles Schwab checking account which currently has a 4.25% APY (4.16% interest).

Retirement Calculator

I'm always concerned about my retirement savings. I want to make sure that I will be able to retire comfortably and not work until I die. I found a CNN money retirement calculator that calculates how much you need to put away each year if you would like to retire at age 65 with 80% of your pre-retirement income.

I need to save $2,968 (or 8% of my income). How much does the calculator predict you need to save? Are you meeting the goal?

Notes: Savings percentages are rounded figures. Assumes retirement age of 65, annual inflation of 2.5%, that Social Security and savings will replace 80% of pre-retirement salary after deducting annual amount saved and that savings are invested in a portfolio that gradually shifts from 91% stocks, 9% bonds to 46% stocks, 54% bonds by retirement date. At retirement, funds are invested in an inflation-adjusted lifetime immediate annuity.

Addition to Down Payment Savings Account

My down payment account total is $626.86, which is 2% of my final goal of $30,000. I made $25.14 signing up with ING direct ($25 sign-up bonus and $.14 to verify an account). Therefore, if anyone would like an ING referral, I have a few!

I also made $54.29 from my second job. I haven't been teaching many classes, but I am picking up an extra class this week. I plan on trying to get a few extra hours every pay period to try to pump my savings up a notch.

Thanks to Dimples for the ING referral link.

Free Greeting Cards

Get a free Saturday card by Connections from Hallmark through the free sample section of Wal-Mart. The cards are really cute, and feature animals (who doesn't love a picture of a puppy).

Meet Gloom Betty. She’s a tad, shall we say, un-cheery. Sarcastic. And she tells it like it is in her own goth-girl fashion. Then there’s Monty the squirrel — a little pint-sized philosopher. And the Cat Heads … well, they’re cats doing people things. Which is always amusing. (Seriously, it is! Trust us.) Come meet them all, courtesy of Connections from Hallmark, in the greeting card aisle at Wal-Mart. And just try to keep a straight face.

I received my book!

I received my copy of Getting to Yes that I won from Brip Blap's giveaway. I will read this book and provide a book review....AFTER I read Harry Potter! A big thanks to Brip Blap, I LOVE getting mail!

I miss internet access at home...

I cancelled my Internet access because I ended up in a little bit of credit card debt. I'm currently working hard to pay it down, but I can't help but feel a little sad that my laptop can only be used to play solitaire.

I used to have Comcast High Speed Cable Internet for $36/month ($33 for the promotion plus an additional $3 for the modem rental). I can't really afford Internet access right now, but they do have a promotion (Get COMCAST Internet - $19.99/mo. for 6 months) right now. I'm somewhat tempted to sign-up, but I know that I will be paying around $25/month....which really should be going to pay off the remaining balance on my credit cards.

Almost finished!

With the help of friends and family, I was able to move all of my stuff from my old apartment to my new apartment. I have finished cleaning my old apartment. I just have to do a few last minute things--pull the remaining nails out the wall, fill the holes, and turn in the keys. I have until July 31st to do it, so I will probably put it off until next weekend.

Now, the fun of unpacking begins. I have my kitchen totally unpacked, but my clothes (which were put in boxes, not garbage bags) are strewn around my bedroom. I will try to unpack one box a day. This may take forever, but at least I have the important items already unpacked.

On a side note, I received the new Harry Potter book, but I haven't had a chance to start reading it (moving/unpacking). I have a tennis class tonight, but I hope to get a little bit of reading it today.

I hate moving!

Is there anything worse than moving? The whole process of packing up everything you own, moving it to a new location, and then unpacking your possessions is extremely tedious and frustration. First, I had to get a moving crew. Since I'm trying to be frugal, my crew consists of me, my two siblings, my boyfriend, my parents, and my grandmother.

Since no one in my moving crew has a truck (the closest is a minivan), I had to get a moving truck. I rented the cheapest moving truck possible through Budget Rental Trucks. I booked my reservation online to save 5%. Luckily, I'm just moving down the street (about 2 miles), so the $.89 per mile will not be cost prohibitive. While I was booking the truck, they had a lot of other options. You could rent blankets for $15, rent a dolly for $15, and buy boxes for about $4-10/box. I opted out of all of the extras in the name of being frugal. However, now I'm having a hard time collecting boxes to put my stuff in. I went to the local grocery store and the produce department gave me about 20 small boxes (think the size of a VCR box). I've used all of these boxes and still have to pack all of my clothes, my linens, and my kitchen. At work, I acquired another five boxes (these are definitely bigger), but I'm still going to be short. My boyfriend recommended moving my clothes in garbage bags and laundry baskets. I'm not crazy about the garbage bag idea, but I think that's what it has come to....my precious clothing wadded up in a garbage bag!!!!!!!!!

Now, let's consider the last item on the moving to-do list--clean the old apartment. YUCK! This includes all of the cleaning that I didn't feel like EVER doing while I lived there. To list a few--cleaning the inside of the refrigerator, cleaning the oven, and cleaning inside my stove's burners. The cleaning part of moving may be my least favorite part. However, my mom and grandma have volunteered to clean my old apartment while everyone else is moving stuff into the new place. I love my family!

However, I one good thing about moving, besides the $100/month I will be saving in rent and utilities, is getting rid of crap! I love to sell crap on eBay to get rid of it. However, what do you do with all of the stuff that you can't sell on eBay? Give it to my parents for their garage sale. My mom is excited about the street wide garage sale this year. She has dedicated a full walk-in closet to stuff she plans on selling. While I was going to donate my items to the Salvation Army, I know my parents will sell what will go, and then donate the rest to the local Goodwill. I have designated a closet that I have already packed up for the items that will be going home with my parents. I have chairs, clothing, CDs, DVDs, office supplies, Barbies, and books jammed into the closet so far. Actually, the closet is starting to overflow with items. I also have an enormous amount of paper recycling. I'm thinking about getting a cart to wheel all of my garbage and recycling up to the dumpster/recycling bin area.

I joined PPP

I just joined PayPerPost. I am looking forward to earning a little extra money to fund my down payment account. I heard about PayPerPost from Krystal at Give Me Back My Five Bucks. She has made a tremendous amount of money through PPP, so I thought I should try it out. I hope to be able to make a little bit of money to put add to my down payment account. With PayPerPost, I will be able to make more money than the survey sites that I use. I will also be able to earn money doing something that I enjoy, blogging.

I would recommend PayPerPost to any blogger that is looking to make a little extra money online. It also provides a blog network and an easy, painless way to make money from your blog. I have checked out a few of the blogs that belong to the PayPerPost top earners, and they don’t appear to be anything unusual. While the blogs have many more readers than I do, I hope, with a few years under my belt, the readership of my blog will increase.

For any of my readers that are not familiar with PayPerPost—PayPerPost pays you to write a post on your blog about a specific subject. According to Krystal, the company deposits the payment into your PayPal account. I will deposit any of the money I earn online, whether the money is earned through eBay, PayPerPost, or any online survey site, into my down payment savings account.

I would love to hear any success or failure stories any of my readers have had with PayPerPost. I hope that all of my blogging friends are secretly becoming rich through PayPerPost, and now I’m allowed in the group :)

I love my readers!

I received so many great comments from my readers about my proposed budget that I thought I needed a full post to address them all (and show some link love)! :) Thanks!

xtophyr at Cocoalate and Louise from My Journey to Eliminate Debt--I wish I could pay off my car loan earlier, but my parents took out the loan for me and it's in their name. It's a long story, including an argument, but the end result is that I pay $222.65 every month.

xtophyr, niuiceprincess, single ma and addy mentioned my clothing budget--While I know this may seem high, this is the thing that usually breaks my budget (and leads to credit card debt). I'm trying to plan ahead to avoid getting myself into trouble again. However, the money will be set aside in an interest bearing account. Therefore, if I can cub my shopaholic tendencies, I will be able to transfer it to my down payment account every few months.

kelly from Making Ends Meet and Single Ma--My budget for presents is really an early savings for Christmas. This will include any travel costs (gas), gifts, and random holiday decorations (I have none).

Single Ma at Single Ma's Fabulous Financials--Thanks for the great feedback. I really appreciated it! The next few paragraphs are totally dedicated to your comments.

My utility bill is only for electric. My rent covers gas and water (I know I'm lucky). My rental insurance looks high because I pay for the whole year in three months (so this line will be eliminated in a few months).

My car insurance is high because I live in a no-fault state. This means that I pay if some idiot hits me, and unfortunately that happened last year (someone rear-ended me on the highway), my insurance company has to pay for the damages.

My food budget is a little high because I do eat out too much. I plan on trying to lower it. I've worked my way down from about $300/month. It's a process, and I want to give myself room for a few missteps along the way.

I currently don't have any money coming out of my primary paycheck to fund my down payment account. My debt repayment is just going to come from my emergency fund. I hope to have it paid off with my paycheck on Friday. My medical expenses are covered in the medical insurance section by my FSA. My personal care items are all included in the fun money. I don't get mani/pedis, and my hair cuts cost $15 from an Aveda school (every three months).

In order to create this budget, I have been tracking my spending and trying to whittle it down. I also didn't include the $700/month that I set aside for retirement. There is a little left over (in case of a slip-up), but I will leave it like that in case my electric bill is higher than expected.

Sense To Dollars--My cell phone is covered by work, and I do not have a land line. I cancelled my Internet and cable a few days ago because I had acquired some credit card debt. I may get Internet access again if I get a good deal and when I pay for my rental insurance (in two months).

Addy at To Spend or Not to Spend?--I should have mentioned that I pay a year of rental insurance over three months. As for my personal items, I throw them into my fun money because I consider my products an indulgence (I frequently purchase expensive brands). My household stuff is lumped with my food bill since I pick it up at the grocery store. Right now, I'm keeping my car maintenance covered by my emergency fund. Thanks for the great feedback!

Proposed Budget

This is a rough draft of my budget. If you have any recommendations (or just criticism), please feel free to leave a comment.

My Apartment
Rent $670
Utilities (electricity) $30
Rental Insurance $36

My Car
Car Payment $222.65
Car Insurance $105
Gasoline $100

Gym $27
Food $200 (I hope to work to lower this in the upcoming months)
Fun Money $100 (Misc. and entertainment will fall in here)
Emergency Fund $100 (I need to start rebuilding this)
Clothing $50
Travel $100 (I have a trip planned for August that I haven't saved for)
Presents $50 (trying to start saving for Christmas)

June Spending

My June Spending was a little out of control. I guess it makes sense why I'm in debt (again).

Rent--$765
Utilities--$63.02 (I've now cancelled my Internet, so it should be lower this month)
Gym (and a few workout classes)--$177
Food--$124.67 (this is extremely low, even though I ate out quite a bit)
Medical--$128
Gifts--$89.77
Car--$830.34 (once again, JEEZ!!!!)
Gas--$71.43
Charity--$20
Entertainment--$21.55
Rental Insurance--$27
Clothes--$48.67
Misc--$11.31
RothIRA--$250

My after tax income is around $2100. I spent $2637.76. This is extremely frustrating. Even without the $500 spent on my car, I'm still above what I'm taking home, and I'm not even left with anything for savings.

Online Survey Sites

I'm a big fan of money. However, I definitely have too little of it! So, I've been trying out different online sites to make a little bit of money. I'm a fan of Pinecone because you get a little bit of money ($5) for filling out a single survey. However, I only receive a survey a month. Therefore, I'm trying to find new and better survey sites.

I've signed up for Panda Research, but I haven't received any payments yet. I need to do a little bit more work with that site. The downfall to this site is that you have to make $100 before a payout, and I'm not really that dedicated.

I've just recently found a new site called SurveyTeam. I'm going to try out this site, and I'll post about it later. If anyone is interested in signing up, I'll post a referral link :)

Does anyone else have any sites they like? Do you think I'm wasting my time with the survey sites?

Interest Payment!

My down payment account received a nice boost of interest ($1.56). As I mentioned earlier, I know this isn't much money, but I earned it by doing nothing (what a great feeling). I've never been very good at saving money (especially in savings accounts), so $1.56/month in interest is a really great concept to me.

This small amount of interest brings my account to $547.43. I'm thinking about moving $250 into an ING account (to get the sign-up bonus).

Feeling a little voyeuristic?

I was tagged by SF Money Musings to share 8 random facts.

A few of my readers have also come through with 8 random facts...

Addy at To Spend or Not To Spend?
SF Money Musings (the person that tagged me)
Dreamy1 at Blogging My Way out of Debt
GoldnSilver at My Financial Blog
stealthy mocked the Kone, but check out his doctored up photo
Krystal at Give Me Back My Five Bucks

I also want to give a shout-out to justbeth. Anyone that can eat a jar of Nutella in one sitting is pretty cool in my book.

Also, if you would like me to visit your blog, please feel free to leave your web address in my comments. I'm always excited to find out I have a reader...

I won!!!!!!!

I received an e-mail from Brip Blap. I won his book giveaway (Getting to Yes). I love free things, and this just takes the cake. Thanks Brip Blap!

Look for a review of the book in the coming months (and I'm sure I'll still be on cloud 9 about winning the book).

NIUiceprincess has tagged me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger! The Rockin' Girl Blogger award was started by Roberta Ferguson at Blogging Made Devilishly Simple. If you want to learn about the award please visit her website. If you want to participate you have to--Put the badge on your blog, give credit to Roberta, and nominate 5 other bloggers.

I nominate

Dreamy1 at Blogging my Way Out of Debt--She is very open about her debt, savings, and goals.

Dimples at Dimple's Divine Domain--She's a single mother trying to pay off her debts and curb her love for shopping (I can relate).

GoldnSilver at My Financial Blog--She's a 20-something blogger, and I highly recommend this post about a blind date.

SFMoney Musings at Thoughts from a SF Renter. She's another 20-something (notice a trend) blogger. Her blog is very open and honest about her spending and her diet. She has some great bargain recipes (check out her fried rice)

Well-Heeled: 20something money. She's increasing her savings and she almost has a positive networth.

My Pudding Score

I saw Boston Gal post about her pudding score getting thicker, so I thought why don't I look at my pudding score. Her pudding score was 104 ( up from 92). Considering her networth is around $470k, I didn't really think I had much hope. However, I was pleasantly surprised! My pudding score was 148!

What does my Pudding Score™ mean?
Your Pudding Score™ is a measure of how your current retirement fund assets compare to the amount the Benchmark Account says someone your age and pay should have accumulated by now.
A score above 100 says you are ahead of the index at this point in time and a score below 100 says you lag behind the index’s pace.

You’ll need to look to other sources of Replacement Income to cover some or all the remaining 43% of your annual pay at age 65. A financial advisor or certified financial planner can help you determine what other sources of Replacement Income are best suited to your circumstances and needs.

Credit Card Debt

As I have mentioned before, I have managed to dig myself into a little hole. I'm speaking about my credit card debt. I have added up all of my cards, and I owe $993.60. I guess it's time to buckle down and pay down!

How am I going to get rid of this credit card debt fast (and not let it snowball as I have in the past)? I'm going to try to avoid going out to eat during the week (my major weakness). I will also try to eat down my stockpile of food (like SF Money Musings and her lentils). I am also returning my modem to Comcast (today) and cancelling my service (it's about $40/month saved). Also on the utilities front, I will try to avoid turning on the air conditioner. Boston Gal's powercost monitor goes from $0.04-0.07/hour without air conditioning to $0.30/hour with the air on. That's enough to send me to my apartment complex's pool to cool down (or for a Popsicle in the freezer).

I also have my moving costs to take into consideration. Luckily, I don't have to pay rent for August (part of the move in deal), so I will just shell out $500 for the security deposit/move-in fees/application fees/prorated July rent. I also was considering painting my apartment. I think this is still an option because I will have family and friends help. I will not rent a U-Haul as initially planned. I will have to do a great job packing and use my overlap time wisely. For my big items, I will borrow a friend's truck. I also need to get rid of my futon. I'm thinking about selling it on craigslist. It's a decent wooden futon, but I don't want it. I hope to get about $50 for it, and have the person move it out of my apartment.

8 Random Facts

I was tagged by SF Money Musings to share 8 random facts about myself.

1. I purchased a road bike this summer to participate in triathlons. I have completed one (and placed in the top 10 women).

2. I've just started training for a 10k. I would like to run a sub-45 minute 10 k. The end goal is to run a marathon (I would like to run around 3:40).

3. I can eat a whole jar of Nutella in one sitting...Just the jar, a spoon, and me. Most people are disgusted, but there are a rare few that are amazed.

4. I have no idea what I want to do when I grow up. My mom claims that I'm too smart and have too many options.

5. I've started taking tennis classes.

6. I love to receive mail, even junk mail. I also love e-mail, but hate spam.

7. I own a Kone (in blue).

8. I love Harry Potter and have already pre-ordered the book through Amazon. I will receive it on July 21st! A link below for any slow people that haven't had a chance to pre-order the book yet.

I would love to hear more about Single Ma at Single Ma's Fabulous Financials and Dreamy at Blogging my Way out of Debt.

I would love to hear random facts about all of my readers. If you haven't been tagged yet, consider yourself tagged and leave a comment that you posted 8 random facts. I will link back to you and check out your blog.

Addition to Down Payment Account

I had a surprise in my PayPal account today. I made $4.74 from Brandport Insights. Another paycheck addition brings my down payment savings account total to $545.87 (1.8% of my goal). I accidently left Brandport out of my making money online post, and then I receive a payment today.

I have made $234.39 in three months by selling things on eBay, interest payments, bonus payments (from CitiBank), fatwallet, PineCone, Brandport, and rebates. The rest of the money in the account has come from working at my second job. I haven't been able to divert any money away from my primary pay check yet.

Making Money Online

Unexpected income is the easiest to save. Since I'm not used to having it, then I'm not used to spending it. Also, I have it automatically transferred to my down payment savings account, so I don't have a chance to spend it. I receive a lot of questions about how to get started with these companies, as well as how I am doing with each of the companies.

My favorite way to make money is through . I love to sell the items that clutter my apartment. I only accept payments through PayPal, which I have connected to my down payment savings account. Recently, I have sold a few bottles of perfume (presents that I didn't like), groups of free samples (I don't know how I acquire so many), and an ipod shuffle that I earned at iPod Sweepstakes.

If you would like to try to earn an iPod at iPod Sweepstakes, a few words of advice--create a junk e-mail account and use it to sign up at the site, keep track of which offers you complete (you may have to send an e-mail to their customer service if you don't receive points for a completed offer), it is possible to earn a shuffle without giving out your credit card number (I only completed offers that required name, e-mail address, and birth date).

The easiest way to make money online (although it probably won't be very much) is through survey sites. My favorite survey site is PineCone. The only difficult thing about Pinecone is getting in. Right now, Pinecone is advertising on NetworthIQ. You can click on the banner and sign up. I receive about one survey a month ($5 per survey deposited directly into my PayPal account. I have made about $30 through PineCone.

I have also talked about PandaResearch. I have signed up for the service and completed a few offers. However, I haven't completed enough to receive a payment. Has anyone else had any luck with this site? Some of my friends have received $100 checks from this company, but I haven't spent enough time there (yet).

I would also like to start making money through my blog. I'm thinking about using PayPerPost, but I don't think my blog is old enough quite yet. When my blog reaches the proper age, my few readers may see a few sponsored posts from time to time. I'm also currently using Google AdSense. I am, of course, far away from ever receiving a check from Google, but it is a frequent fantasy....



In order to pump up the number of readers, I thought I could try a subscription-based e-mail newsletter. Constant Contact has a 60 day free trial period. I think I need to really get serious about writing better and more substantial posts before I jump into the e-mail marketing business.

As always, I appreciate any comments or advice from my readers...

AC: Associated Content

The People's Media Company

I just joined AC. If you would click on my link and join, I get a little money for the referral. It's a nice way to make a little extra income by submitting articles (must be over 400 words) and other types of content. I know a lot of people are doing PayPerPost, but my blog isn't old enough. Therefore, I thought this might be a nice way to earn a little extra income along the way.

The Best Financial Advice Ever (?)

When I saw the article, The Best Financial Advice Ever on MSN's homepage I had to click on the article. Thoughts of simplifying my budget and making hard decisions seem easier floated through my head. Then I clicked on the article and the perfect article that I had envisioned just seconds before was not the reality staring me in the face.

The article was boring, and totally done. There wasn't a new idea in the entire article. Liz Pulliam Weston just pulled a bunch of cliches together for her article. I was very disappointed by this article, but I think the large build-up in my head caused it's demise before I even started to read.

If you're interested in joining PineCone research (the place that I earn $5/survey), I saw a banner to join PineCone posted on NetWorthIQ. Even if you don't fit the age group mentioned on the banner, click on it anyway. I signed up with a banner for 18-24 year old males, and I still receive a few surveys a month. You may have to refresh the page a few times to see the banner (it's green).

My account is over $400! With a paycheck and money from fatwallet, I added $62.17. Bringing the grand total of my down payment savings account to $454.89 (1.5% of my goal).

I have gotten myself into a little bit of a hole with my credit cards again (about $500) because of my car repairs. My emergency fund only has $500 in it now, so I'm a little worried about totally emptying that out.

New NetWorth

My networth increased a little this month, $14,934 (only because of my retirement contributions).

Moving and Such...

I'm preparing for my move to a new apartment. While my rent will be higher than when I had a roommate, it will be lower than living in a 2 bedroom apartment without one. Also, since the heat and water is included, I think this will really help my budget in the winter weather. Also, my new apartment is closer to work, so I will try to ride my bike or walk to work everyday.

However, now I'm considering what to do with some of the stuff I don't want...can I sell it? Should I donate it? I have a wood frame futon that I would rather not have to move. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I would go about selling it. I also have a few boxes of clothes that don't fit, I don't want, and I just don't like. I'm thinking about donating them to the salavation army, but I'm not sure how to itemize them for the tax write-off. Frequently, when people move out of my apartment complex, they will leave boxes of stuff that they don't want in a common area with the words free on it. I'm considering doing the same thing with some of my smaller items. Even though I'm just moving down the street, I see this as a perfect opportunity to get rid of a lot of crap that I've been collecting over the past three years.

I'm also planning on painting my new place. I'm thinking about using low VOC paint. Does anyone have any recommendations on which types coat well and have a nice color selection?

Any tips on moving would be greatly appreciated.....